13 Chilling Episodes of Disappeared You Can Watch Tonight

These cases still haunt our dreams.

Do re-runs of Dateline have you suffering from a true crime deficiency? Look no further than Investigation Discovery’s Disappeared to satisfy your need for stories of unexplained disappearances. All eight seasons–108 episodes in total–are available to stream on digital platforms like Amazon and iTunes and new episodes are added regularly. From the chilling disappearance of entire families to strange cases of young men and women who seemingly vanished into thin air, these true crime tales still haunt our dreams.

Some of the cases featured below have been solved. Others remain a mystery. Can you crack these cases?

"Miles to Nowhere"

Season 1, Episode 6

Photo Credit: Oxygen

Maura Murray e­-mailed her professors on the afternoon of Monday, February 9th, 2004, telling them she needed to take a week off class due to a family emergency. Later that evening, a woman reported a car accident in Woodsville, New Hampshire. Meanwhile, a bus driver came upon the scene, noticed the young woman (later identified as Maura) and offered help. The young woman convinced him she had already spoken to AAA. He acquiesced and left the scene. By the time the police arrived, the young woman had vanished, but the authorities later tied the abandoned vehicle to Murray. To this day, Murray has never been found.

Lauria Bible was attending a 16th birthday slumber party in December 1999 for her best friend Ashley Freeman when the house caught fire. Police made the grisly discovery of Ashley’s parents’ bodies inside, both dead from gunshot wounds to the head. But Ashley and Lauria were nowhere to be found. Lauria’s mother remains convinced her daughter is still alive. Earlier this year, a suspect was finally arrested in this case.

In August 2013, Bryce Laspia’s parents received a phone call from their distressed 19-year-old son, claiming that he needed to speak with them in person, as soon as possible. Though it should have only taken him a few hours to reach home, Laspia was driving for over 20 hours, behaving strangely. Eventually his car was found overturned near Castiac Lake, with his blood on the backseat. Eerily, Laspia himself has never been found.

A pair of joggers found a wrecked car at the bottom of Canyon Creek in Bellingham, Washington on March 18, 2000. Authorities were able to trace the vehicle back to Leah Roberts, who had vanished from her home in Durham, North Carolina, nine days earlier. Despite the fact that a woman reported a young woman matching Leah’s description acting disoriented at a gas station near the accident, Roberts vanished into thin air and has never been heard from again.

One of the most chilling episodes of Disappeared, the McStay family murders have since, thankfully, been solved. In 2010, the family of four disappeared from their home. For three agonizing years, friends and family members could only wonder what had befallen Joseph, Summer, and their two young sons. Sadly, in 2013, their remains were discovered buried in a shallow grave in the desert of Victorville, California. The details that have since emerged about their murder are nothing short of chilling.

Bobby Jamison, his wife Sherilynn, and their six-year-old daughter Madyson (pictured above) vanished into thin air while shopping for a plot of land near Eufala, Oklahoma, in 2009. Within a few days of their disappearance, the family’s truck was discovered with their dog still inside, barely alive, but no sign of the Jamisons. After the episode of Disappeared aired, the family’s remains were discovered four years after they were first reported missing, less than three miles away from the abandoned truck. Though several theories have emerged, the case remains unsolved.

Want more true crime? Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and get unsolved cases delivered straight to your inbox.

Yes! I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks.

"A Family's Curse"

Season 3, Episode 9

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Ray Gricar was a prominent District Attorney for Centre County, Pennsylvania when he disappeared from a road trip on April 15, 2005. His girlfriend reported him missing, and his car was later recovered in a parking lot. His missing laptop later turned up in the nearby river. Gricar’s older brother had committed suicide under similar circumstances, so one of many theories is that Gricar had also killed himself. Others believe Gricar’s line of work made him the victim of foul play. He has never been found, and in 2011, his daughter had him declared legally dead.

Eighteen-year-old Zebb Quinn had just finished his shift at Walmart in Asheville, North Carolina, in January 2000, when he failed to return home. Police discovered his abandoned car with its headlights on, a puppy inside, and a strange drawing made in lipstick on the windshield. But there was no sign of Quinn. A coworker named Robert Jason Owens claimed the two had plans to go look at a car Quinn intended to purchase, but that Quinn broke those plans after he received an upsetting phone call. After the episode of Disappeared aired in 2012, new evidence was discovered, and Quinn’s disappearance has since been solved.

After losing custody of her two young daughters, distraught mother April Pitzer disappeared in June 2004. She had been living and working in California but planned to move in with her mother who lived in Arkansas. A man she was dating claimed he had dropped her at a bus stop, but Pitzer never arrived in Arkansas and was never heard from again. Pitzer’s mother claimed her daughter had been targeted after she worked as a drug informant for the police. To this day, Pitzer has never been found, although a number of her belongings have been discovered scattered across the Mojave Desert.

Ashley Summers was just 14 years old when she vanished into thin air on July 4th, 2007. Devastatingly, Summers disappeared not far from the house where Ariel Castro had imprisoned three young women who eventually escaped. Yet there appeared to be no connection between Summers and Castro, who committed suicide in jail in 2013. In 2015, Summers’ grandfather thought he recognized the missing girl in a surveillance video, but the lead didn’t go anywhere. Eleven years later, Summers remains missing.

On July 12, 2007, Joey Lynn Offutt’s home caught fire. The remains of her six-week-old son were discovered in the aftermath of the blaze in the bathtub. But Offutt was gone. Her abandoned car was discovered four days later. In 2016, Offutt’s mother had her legally declared dead. Theories on her disappearance vary, including that Offutt may have met with foul play or that, suffering from postpartum depression, she murdered her own child and later committed suicide.

Vivacious 21-year-old Kortne Stouffer disappeared in the early morning hours of July 29, 2012. After a night with friends, Stouffer had called police at 3:00 A.M. to report an argument with her neighbors. Based on the timeline from the phone call to police, Kortne disappeared from her home sometime between 3:45 and 7:30 A.M. that morning. Theories have ranged from suspecting Kortne’s boyfriend of murder to an active serial killer in the area. As of 2018, the case remains unsolved.

Experienced diver Ben McDaniel’s car was found abandoned near a diving shop he frequented in Vortex Spring, Florida, on August 18, 2010. Authorities believe that McDaniel must have drowned while diving in the nearby cave, but his body has never been recovered, leading some to believe he may have met with foul play. Others believe he may have staged his own death to escape his recent divorce and financial problems. McDaniel remains missing to this day.